Swiss museum revisits demand for Nazi-era art return after 2008 denial
ZURICH- Switzerland is again at the centre of a dispute over a Nazi-era art trove as the Basel Art Museum reconsiders demands it return a Jewish art historian's collection to descendants.
It rejected their restitution bid in 2008.
The museum owns 120 drawings and prints, including a "Madonna" lithograph from Edvard Munch potentially worth millions of dollars, that belonged to Curt Glaser.
Glaser auctioned the works in 1933 after losing his job leading the Prussian State Art Library in Berlin and being evicted from his home in the first wave of Nazi anti-Semitic laws.
Basel Art Museum director Josef Helfenstein has called up a task force after Glaser's heirs demanded the case be re-opened, citing unearthed documents they say underscore their claims.
"We hope it won't be put on the backburner, so everybody forgets about it again," said Valerie Sattler, a great niece of Glaser.
Basel may announce a meeting with the family and its lawyer as early as this week, a museum spokeswoman said on Monday.
Scrutiny of Jewish-owned art sold for low prices or stolen by the Nazis is nothing new in Switzerland.
